We are pleased to inform you that the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Macedonia is now launching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) Small Grants Programme aimed at supporting local initiatives for the promotion of the Millennium Development Goals Campaign.

The Millennium Development Goals Campaign is based on the global commitments put forward in the Millennium Declaration, which sets out a single framework of the key challenges facing humanity at the threshold of the new millennium in the areas of:

Halving extreme poverty and hunger

Achieving universal primary education

Promoting gender equality

Reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds

Reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters

Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB

Ensuring environmental sustainability

Developing a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade, debt relief

MDGs Small Grants Facility Programme will award 4 micro-grants in the amount of up to US$ 2,500 to short-term projects to support grass-roots activities carried out by community-based organisations or individuals. In this endeavour, preference will be given to initiatives undertaken by community organisations or individuals involved in above mentioned areas at the local level.

The implementation of the MDGs Small Grants Programme at the country level will be ensured by the UN MDGs Task Force comprising of representatives of the United Nations Agencies represented in Macedonia. If you are interested in applying for the MDGs Small Grants Programme, you are invited to do so by filling an application form. The form should be returned to the UN MDGs Task Force (please refer to the contact information below) by Tuesday, 09 December 2003. If your application will be selected, you will be notified by 11 December 2003.

In order to proceed with the application process, please follow the guidelines listed below:

Please obtain the application form from UNDP office at Dimitrie Cupovski 8, 1000 Skopje, or download from the UN in Macedonia Website – www.un.org.mk

Fill in the Application Form and return it together with the one page summary/background on your organisation’s previous activities.

Please note that all the documents submitted for consideration of the MDG Task Force should be in English. The applications received after 09 December 1999 deadline will not be accepted.

These days, a new commercial about a new coffee brand appeared on TV. I presume you’ve already seen it. A secretary slips when bringing coffee to her boss, slides down his desk on her stomach to stop in front of him with the coffee in her hand? I am not sure how you react to it, but after I had seen it for the first time I was left with my mouth open. It was a mixed feeling of bewilderment, sickness, disbelief…how could somebody think of something like that? How could nobody react to this commercial?

Bari, Alisa, Dzejlan and a list of other names are just some of the examples for successful work of the Roma information centers of the humanitarian organization Mesecina from Gostivar. Despite being adults, they have recently been given their first birth certificate and have practically been born for the second time.

It was so alive on 16 February in Veles! The event “Veleska pastrmajlija” was taking place at the pizza-bar “Snoopy”. The event has a special purpose – collecting money for the Children Ward at the Town Hospital. The action was organized by the “Focus” Foundation, in cooperation with the municipality of Veles.

We decided to make an unusual interview with three people, as they themselves are unusual, as well as the association they are members of. Aleksandra Kapetanovic, Biljana Gligorovic and Tatjana Rajic are three young architects, who dedicate their creativity, knowledge and enthusiasm to cultural heritage, architecture, spatial planning and the civic sector in Montenegro, particularly focused on Boka Kotorska and its surroundings.

“People who are of the same origin and who speak the same words and who live and make friends of each other, who have the same customs and songs and entertainment are what we call a nation, and the place where that people lives is called the people's country. Thus the Macedonians also are a nation and the place which is theirs is called Macedonia.”

The genesis of the Armenian communities on the territory of today’s Macedonia goes back to the medieval times as can be proved by the numerous papers, traveling notes by foreign travelers who stayed or passed through the towns where among other nations, lived the Armenians.